Texas

Business friendliness studies by various organizations consistently rank Texas as in or near the top 10 states. For example, CNBC’s Best States for Business ranks Texas #1, Forbes ranking places Texas at #6, and the Small Business Survival Index ranks Texas #3. Texas also ranks #2 (behind California) in terms of total agricultural receipts. In light of these results, it is surprising that Texas only ranks 18th to 24th for the four indices reported in this analysis. To be sure, Texas agribusinesses enjoy a number of benefits, including the absence of income and capital gain taxes, a relatively efficient state government, a favorable regulatory climate and the lack of a ballot initiative process. Offsetting these benefits, however, are weaknesses in state infrastructure, K-12 education, fairly high sales and property taxes, and relatively weak job churning in the general business sector. Significant numbers of strengths and weaknesses results in overall scores that are just slightly above average.